Car-door control.



T. FAHMER, JR. CAR DOOR CONTROL. APPLICATION FILED FEB. 13, I913.

1,216,300 Patnted Feb.20,1917.

Trolley WITNESSES: SINVENTOR ATTY Trolley Reseruonr J UNITED OFFICE.

THOMAS BARKER, .13., OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO CONSOIJIDATED OAR-HEATIN G COMPANY. A CORPORATION OF WEST VIRGINIA.

can-noon OONTROL' Patented Feb. 20, 1917.

Application flled'lebruary 13, 1913. Serial No. 748,122.

Figure 1 shows my invention diagrammatically;

Fig. 2 is a detail sectional view of the air as any one of the doorsremains open.

,lIyinvention relates to the control of car doors and resides primarily in a system of door-operating motors which depend upon the motion of the car, being inoperative to open the doors until the car comes to a standstill, regardless of the movement of the car motor controller to its ofif or stopping po sition. To this end I place a sensitive electromagnet in a shunt circuit across the terminals of the. car-propelling motor, when ever the car is about to stop, which magnet serves to keep the door motors disabled, so long as the car is moving. The armature of the car-propelling motor, being geared to the car axle, will continue to rotate so long as the car is in motion and so generate sufficient current in the aforesaid magnet to keep it energized and so in a condition to prevent the operation of the doors until the car comes to a standstill. The circuit of the said magnet (which I will term the disabling magnet) is under the control of the well known interlock magnet which serves to give a preliminary ground connection for the contactor magnets of the main controller, which ground is broken by the first action of the contactors admitting current to the motor and closed when the controller comes to its ofi' position and its contactors are all deenergized. In the said ground connection which the interlock establishes I plate a pair of contacts controlled a relay magnet in the ordinary door-signa circu t those'contacts remaining open (and the said ground connection thereby broken) scaling all of the doors are closed the said pair of contacts are also closed and the contactor magnets of the controller receive current and can act to admit current to the propelling motor and re ulate its speed in the usual way. Thise eat, it willbeobserved,is independent of the motormans operating handle which may be moved by the motorman in.

the usual manner to the on position to start the car, but the actual starting does not occur until the doors are closed and the contactors receive current as aforesaid. By this arrangement the motorman need ay no attention to the doors but when he s readyto start he will merely turn his handle to the first on position in the usual way and the car will start or not according as the doors are all closed or not. If the car does not start' at first, it will ultimately start automatically when the doors are all closed and the contactors thereby receive current. Thereafter the doors can not be openedagain until the car actually comes to a standstill. The motorman can threw his controller to the off position to stop the car but that action will not release the doors and'allow them to be opened, since it only serves to bring the said disabling magnet into circuit, which, as I have stated, keeps control of the door motors until the car actually stops.

This serves to prevent all on-and-ofi' accidents, since no passenger, nor even the motorman or conductor of the car, can open the doors until the car is at a standstill; nor until all of the doors are closed, will the car start, and not even the motorman can cause the car to start until the doors are actually shut, and when the doors are actually shut the car will start automatically without regard to the motorman, who, however, has indicated his readiness to start by moving his handle to the first on position.

Turning to the diagram of Fig. 1, I have omitted therefrom for clearness the controller details which are well knoiwn to the art, and require no specific illustration or description.

The circuit X is the ordinary doorrsi'gna'l circuit, having gaps at 1, 2, 3 and i'rwhich, as is now well known, will be closed automatically by the closure of the respective doors and so, when all the doors are closed, the circuit will be completed from trolley to ground through the signal apparatus a, and also through a relay magnet a which I place therein for the purpose I have mentioned of dominating the next circuit Y which is the initial ground circuit of the controller and is dominated in turn b the usual interlock C, which closes sai circuit Y when the controller comes to off position and breaks the flow of current to the contactors. It should be borne in mind that the circuit Y is merely one. of the contactor circuits and, as usual, will contain a contactor magnet, which magnet will control the initial closure of the main motor circuit by which current is first admitted to the motor. The energizing of circuit Y not only admits current to the motor by the main motor circuit but also operates the interlock C to break the ground connection of the said circuit Y through the motor E, it being remembered that the circuit Y contains a high resistance so that while it has a momentary ground connection through the motor yet no material amount of current flows through the motor to said ground by way of the circuit Y. A represents the master controller with its handle which the motorman uses, and B is the contactor box containing the ordinary contactors and contactor magnets which admit current to and regulate the speed of the propelling motor as the master controller may determine. The details of the master controller, the

contactors and the circuit connections be tween the contactors and the propelling motor are not shown herein, since they are well known and form no part of my invention. D is the field magnet and E the armature of the propelling motor.

Comm now to my devices, F represents the disab in magnet aforesaid which is connected, as s own, in a shunt circuit across the terminals of the pro lling motor, so long as the interlock at 8 magnet F controls the air su )ply from the reservoir K to the door motor that operates the door J. As shown in Fig. 2,the core f of magnet F, when that magnet is deenergized rests upon the stem of valve f and, b its weight, unseats the valve against the orce of the valve-closing spring, thereby putting the pipes f and f into communication with each other and admitting air pressure from the reservoir K to the reverser-valve G, which, in a manner well known, controls the door motor H when operated in one direction or the other by magnets under control of the respective push-buttons P and P in the door-control circuit Z. When.said dis,- abling magnet F is energized, it lifts its core f and thereby allows the valve f to close and cut off the supply of air from the reservoir. to the door motor. 'The magnet F is a sensitive one and will become energ'zed by the sli htest rotation of armature of the prope ing motor or, conversely, will remain energized so long as armature is closed; The

E is turning, provided that the interlock C is closed to connect the magnet with the motor terminals. When current is admitted to the system by the master controller, the interlock C is opened and magnet F receives current throug the circuit Y so long as the circuit remains on, the car being in motion. That will also keep the air sup ly shut off from the door motors and disa le them or render them inoperative. When current is shut off from the system by the master controller and the contactors which it dominates the magnet F will no longer receive current from circuit Y but will receive it from the propelling motor (the interlock being then closed) which acts as a nerator so long as it continues to rotate. 0t until thepropelling motor is at rest will the m net F become deenergized. In other wor the disablin magnet is always in action to disable the cor motors except when the car is at rest, and is always receiving current, either from the trolley wire or the propelling motor acting as a generator except when the car is at rest. It acts as a permanent disabling agent for the car door motors, except as it is released by the car coming to rest, so that only when the car is at rest can the doors be operated in either direction.

In the door-signal circuit X is the relay magnet a, which, when energized, closes a pair of contacts in the aforesaid circuit Y.

y this means this initial ground circuit Y is controlled by the opening and closing of the doors, as well as b the master switch and, so far as concerns ts route through the motors, by the interlock C, the latter being in turn controlled by one of the oontactors. If the tram is moving, this circuit Y has a ground throu h the disabling magnet F, the

oors being c osed, but even if the motor man turns his handle to ofi osition, thereby causing the contactor whic dominates circuit Y to break the supply of trolley current thereto, it does not afiect the disabling magnet, since the interlock closes at the same time and the disabling magnet continuesto receive current from the ropelhng motor acting as a generator and so continues to receive current until the propelhng motor stops and the car is at rest.

n starting again the motorman pays no attention to the doors but merely turns his proceed norma 1y with the door motors in disabled condition. The turning of the controller to of position will then cut 01! trolley current from the propelling motor in the ordinary way and the disabling magnet will continue to receive its current from that motor as above described.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

-1. The combination with a door, of a mo- I tor for operating the same, a source of fluid pressure, means controlling the passage of said fluid pressure from sa1d source to said motor an electro-magnetic device controlling the passage of said fluid pressure to said controlling means, a circuit for operating said controlling device, said circuit having contacts therein to close the circuit when the door is closed, a manual controller for said circuit, a second circuit for operating said electromagnetic device, and means operating in conjunction with said manual controller for opening either circuit when the other circuit is closed.

2. The combination with a door, of a motor for operating the same, a source of fluid pressure, means controlling the passage of said fluid pressure from sa1d source to said motor,.an electro-magnetic device controlling the passage of said fluid pressure to said controlling means, a circuit for operating said controlling device, a second circuit for operating said controlling device, and means operated by the closing of the first circuit for simultaneously opening the second circuit.

3. The combination with a door, of a motor for operating the same, a source of fluid pressure, means controlling the passage of said fluid pressure from said source to said motor, an electro-magnetic device controlling the passage of said fluid pressure to said controlling means, a circuit for operating said controlling device, a second circuit for operating said electro-magnetic controlling device, and an interlock operated by the first circuit and controlling the second circuit.

4:. The combination with a door, of a motor for operating the same, a source of fluid pressure, means controlling the passage of said fluid ressure from sald'source to said motor, an e ectro-magnetic device controlling the passage of said fluid ressure to said controlling means, a circuit for operating said controlling device, said circuit having contacts therein to closethe circuit when the door is closed, a second circuit for operating said electro-magpetic controllin device, an means operated y the closing 0 the first circuit for simultaneously opening the second circuit.

5. The combination with a car door of an operating motor therefor, a; controlling magnet for" said motor, a source of current supply for said magnet containing a contact operated by the door, an alternative source of supply therefor consisting of the car motor acting as a generator and means for shifting the magnet from one source of supply to the other.

6. The combination with a car door of a controlling magnet therefor, a circuit for said magnet including the car motor, a switch in said circuit, a second circuit for connecting the said magnet-with a source of supply distinct from said car motor and a contact in said second circuit controlled by the door.

7. The combination with a car door of an operating motor therefor, a source of fluid pressure, means controlling passage of fluid pressure from said source to said motor, a controlling device interposed between said source of pressure and said controlling means, and dependent on the stopping movement of the car, a controlling circuit for the car-propelling motor dependent on the 010s ing of the door and means for rendering said controlling device independent of the car stopping movement when the car-propelling motor is started.

8. The combination with a car door, of an operating motor therefor, a controlling magnet for said motor, means for energizing said magnet from the car motor acting as a generator or from the main current supply, a controlling circuit for the car motor. contacts in series in said controlling circuit operated by a relay in a circuit controlled by the opening and closing of the car door, and means operated by sa1d controlling circuit for shifting the said magnet from one source of supply to the other.

9. The combination with a car door of an operating motor therefor, a source of fluid pressure, means controlling passage of fluid pressure from said source to said motor, a controllin magnet interposed between the source of uid pressure and said controlling means, two sources of current supply for THOMAS FARMER, JR.

Witnesses:

.- L. T. SHAW Enrsmn,

Wanner: C. Drona. 

